Doorstep Baby

School, Work, Play...

I sat in my science class listening to the teacher going on and on about what this school semester will be like. Buzz Buzz. I took my phone out of my back pocket and looked at it. It was Jason.

Happy first day of school, good luck.-J,  he wrote.

Thanks Jason.-S, I wrote back.

"You must be new to this school," a girl next to me said.

"Yeah, I went to Miller High, but I moved and was districted for here," I said.

"I'm Lauren."

"Sydney." I said.

"Welcome, Sydney," she said, and she actually reached out to shake my hand (and I didn't shake her hand--I wasn't really used to people touching me). The teacher walked over to us.

"Ms. Anthony, Ms. Carson, do you have something you want to share with the class?" he asked. We shook our heads. "Good, then stay quiet." He then walked off and continued his speech.

Lauren and I met up after class. "So, Sydney, where are you from?" she asked.

"Well, I'm from Cape Coral, but I've lived here in Sarasota my whole life, mostly on the south side of town until a few weeks ago," I said.

"How old are you?" she asked as she stopped in front of me and started turning the dial on her locker.

"I just turned 16 about a month ago," I said.

"Whoa, you skipped a grade?"

"Actually yeah, I skipped third grade," I said.

"Cool! We are totally going to be great friends--I like smart people," she said as she put her book in her locker.

We ended up having the same classes other than her trigonometry class, when I had a free period. I mostly stayed near my locker and listened to my iPod. It was just a first generation model. One of my foster moms gave it to me a few years ago. Lucy was the best foster mom I had ever had. She actually loved all of the kids she took in. Then I was taken away after a year there. No other foster mom could live up to her. We both cried when I had to leave, but they wouldn't let her adopt me because she was single.

I found out that Lauren loved to skateboard. I loved it, too, but Lauren LOVED it, all-caps-italicized-loved it, and she didn't even look like the type of girl who likes skateboarding. I, on the other hand, did. Me and my ripped shorts or loose boot-cut jeans, loose tops, and Converse sneakers. I looked like a skater, even though that wasn't why I dressed that way. I only knew a little, no big tricks or anything fancy, because I mostly just used it to get from A to B, or at least I did before I got the car. I drove to a skate park and we skated for a little bit. We sat down after a while to take a break.

"So Sydney, what's your story?" Lauren picked grass and straw from the wheels of her board.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your past. If it's not too much to ask, I like to write little stories, so I like hearing about people's past and stuff."

"Well I'm...uh, was a foster kid. I was put on a doorstep of an orphanage when I was only a few hours old, and I've lived in 13 different foster homes since then. I was emancipated recently, so I live on my own at an apartment complex a half mile from here," I said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry, but that's a heck of a story. I used to hate talking about it, myself. But that's really cool, emancipated? Wow."

"You're a foster kid?" I asked.

"Yeah, I was, but I was adopted when I was 6. My birth mom left me in the hospital, just payed the bill and left me behind like I was a sweater she never liked anyway."